Preparation and performance of anti-icing and deicing PF-POS@SiO2/CB photothermal superhydrophobic coatings for electrical insulators

• Published in: Soft matter Vol. 19; no. 46; pp. 9036 - 9049
• Main Authors: Zheng, Minchao, Zhou, Cheng, Liu, Qinpei, Li, Xia, Yang, Yuxin, Sun, Yan, Zhu, Zhenyu, Huang, Yanyan, Zhou, Qinghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 29.11.2023
• Subjects: Adhesion; Black carbon; Carbon; Carbon black; Coatings; Contact angle; Deicers; Deicing; Electric contacts; Hydrophobic surfaces; Hydrophobicity; Ice formation; Insulators; Irradiation; Nanoparticles; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Solar radiation; Spraying; Substrates; Surface energy; Surface properties; Wettability
• ISSN: 1744-683X; 1744-6848
• DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00945a

Insulator string icing can cause flashovers or even blackouts in transmission systems and the existing mature deicing methods are usually costly or time consuming. So, in this research PF-POS@SiO2/CB superhydrophobic coatings (SiO2/CB-0, SiO2/CB-10, SiO2/CB-20, SiO2/CB-30, SiO2/CB-40 and SiO2/CB-50) with photothermal deicing and passive anti-icing properties were designed and prepared on the surface of two types of insulator materials (glass and ceramic) by using a simple spraying method. Then, the wettability properties, photothermal properties, and anti-icing/deicing properties of the coatings with the addition of different amounts of SiO2/CB were evaluated. PF-POS@SiO2/CB coatings with no less than 30 wt% of CB (carbon black) content simultaneously exhibit excellent passive anti-icing and deicing performance. For SiO2/CB-30, the water contact angle is as high as 164.9° and the rolling angle is as low as 3° because the combination of silica and carbon black nanoparticles gives the coating a micro/nanostructure and the low surface energy of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane leads to superhydrophobic properties, and the equilibrium temperature of the coating is up to 71.1 °C at 1 solar irradiation because of the photothermal effect of carbon black. The results of the analysis of anti-icing/deicing properties of the coatings to evaluate their potential for engineering applications demonstrate that it takes longer time for ice to form on the coated surface than on a substrate without coating, and the ice completely melts under sunlight after 10 min and falls off automatically by its weight for the addition of 30 wt% carbon black and above, showing excellent deicing performance. Both types of substrates show excellent adhesion with the superhydrophobic coating, which can be classified as class 1 based on the paint and varnish-cross-section test method, and the ceramic material exhibits better adhesion than the glass.